Robert Moss (1666–1729) was an English churchman and controversialist,

Dean of Ely The position of Dean of Ely Cathedral, in East Anglia, England, in the Diocese of Ely was created in 1541 after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The first Dean of Ely had been the last Benedictine prior of Ely. List of deans Early modern ...

from 1713. Robert Moss Vertue

Life

The eldest son of Robert and Mary Moss, he was born at

Gillingham, Norfolk Gillingham ( ) is a small village located just off the A146 in South Norfolk, about 1 mile north of the market town of Beccles. The full name of the parish is Gillingham All Saints and St Mary. It covers an area of and had a population of 650 ...

in 1666. His father was a country gentleman living at Postwick. After

Norwich School Norwich School (formally King Edward VI Grammar School, Norwich) is a selective English independent day school in the close of Norwich Cathedral, Norwich. Among the oldest schools in the United Kingdom, it has a traceable history to 1096 as a ...

he was admitted a

sizar At Trinity College, Dublin and the University of Cambridge, a sizar is an undergraduate who receives some form of assistance such as meals, lower fees or lodging during his or her period of study, in some cases in return for doing a defined jo ...

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Corpus Christi College (full name: "The College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary", often shortened to "Corpus"), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. From the late 14th century through to the early 19th century ...

, 19 April 1682, at the age of sixteen. He graduated B.A. 1685, M.A. 1688, B.D. 1696, D.D. 1705. Soon after his first degree he was elected to a fellowship at Corpus. He was ordained deacon in 1688, and priest in 1690. In 1693 he was appointed by the university to be one of their twelve preachers, and his sermons at

Great St. Mary's St Mary the Great is a Church of England parish and university church at the north end of King's Parade in central Cambridge, England. It is known locally as Great St Mary's or simply GSM to distinguish it from "Church of St Mary the Less, Cambri ...

were popular. After missing by a few votes an appointment to the office of public orator at Cambridge in 1698, he was chosen preacher of

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

on 11 July of that year, in succession to Thomas Richardson, master of

Peterhouse Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite o ...

. In December 1716 he was allowed to nominate

Thomas Gooch Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...

, master of Caius College, as his deputy in this office. Early in 1699 he was elected assistant-preacher at St. James's, Westminster, and was successively chaplain in ordinary to William III, Queen Anne, and George I. In 1708 the parishioners of St. Lawrence Jewry offered him their Tuesday lectureship, which he accepted, succeeding

George Stanhope George Stanhope (5 March 1660 – 18 March 1728) was a clergyman of the Church of England, rising to be Dean of Canterbury and a Royal Chaplain. He was also amongst the commissioners responsible for the building of fifty new churches in Lond ...

, who had become

dean of Canterbury The Dean of Canterbury is the head of the Chapter of the Cathedral of Christ Church, Canterbury, England. The current office of Dean originated after the English Reformation, although Deans had also existed before this time; its immediate precur ...

. Moss's preferments were now numerous. The Master of his college, Thomas Greene, was of opinion that his fellowship was virtually rendered void. A long controversy followed between Moss and the Master, in which it was alleged that the total value of the church preferments held by Moss, £240 in all, was equivalent to six fellowships. The master, however, did not press the matter, and Moss retained his fellowship till 1714. In 1708, or soon afterwards, he was collated to the rectory of

Gilston Gilston is a village and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England. It is located a little over one mile north of the town of Harlow in the neighbouring county of Essex. Together with the nearby hamlet of Eastwick ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

; and on 16 May 1713 was installed dean of Ely. After suffering much from gout, he died 26 March 1729, and was buried in

Ely Cathedral Ely Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, is an Anglican cathedral in the city of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. The cathedral has its origins in AD 672 when St Etheldreda built an abbey church. The presen ...

, where a Latin inscription with his arms (ermine, a cross patée) marks his resting-place. The bulk of his fortune, less an endowment for a sizarship at Caius College, was bequeathed to one of his nephews, Charles Moss,

bishop of Bath and Wells The Bishop of Bath and Wells heads the Church of England Diocese of Bath and Wells in the Province of Canterbury in England. The present diocese covers the overwhelmingly greater part of the (ceremonial) county of Somerset and a small area of Do ...

Works

Moss is described as an excellent preacher and a kind and loyal friend. His sermons were collected and published in 1736, in 8 vols., with a biographical preface by

Zachary Grey Zachary Grey (6 May 1688 – 1766) was an English priest, controversialist, and conservative spokesman for the Church of England. He was also an editor, commentator on William Shakespeare, and critic of dissenter historians. Life Grey was the ...

, who had married one of his step-daughters. An engraved portrait of the author by Vertue is prefixed.

Family

He married a Mrs. Hinton of Cambridge, who survived him, but he left no issue.

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Moss, Robert 1666 births 1729 deaths 17th-century English Anglican priests 18th-century English Anglican priests Deans of Ely Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge People educated at Norwich School People from South Norfolk (district)